


Don't Ask Me To Stay

by Rangergirl3



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [13]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, BUT IT DOES HAPPEN, Gen, Keith (Voltron) Whump, the major character death is temporary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-30 21:11:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20103682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/pseuds/Rangergirl3
Summary: A very different kind of homecoming.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I'm pippythewriter if it's okay I would love to request for bthb Keith dying in Shiro's arms please? Love your stories by the way 😀

The Druids knew they were coming.

The mission was a failure.

Keith isn't entirely certain of how, or when, he made it to an escape shuttle. He doesn't even remember piloting the shuttle through an asteroid field to throw off any pursuers. 

He can barely recall punching in the coordinates for the Castle's last known rendezvous location.

All he knows is that he doesn't want to vanish without saying goodbye, like his parents did.

They left, and they never came back. 

He won't do that to his friends.

Not now, not ever.

* * *

He's not even sure the others would ever notice he was gone.

He's been gone...

_How long **has** it been since....?_

His head hurts.

Keith concentrates on piloting the shuttle.

It's harder than it should be.

His vision's off. The ship's navigating system helps keep the pod steady, but the turbulence is bad enough to make Keith's head throb in time with his heartbeat.

_Not many of those left -_

_No._

_Keep going._

_I can make it._

_I have to._

_The Druids knew we were coming._

_Something's wrong._

_I have to warn them._

_Something's **wrong**_.

* * *

The voice that hails him isn't one he can place. 

It's familiar...but...it's not...

A visual screen opens up, and Keith sees a familiar mop of unruly hair. No glasses, though.

_When did she stop wearing them?_

"...'idge...?" 

The person who looks almost like Pidge blinks, confused, then resumes their carefully neutral expression.

"Castle to incoming craft, please state your intentions."

The comms unit buzzes and whines with static. Keith winces and tries to shift away from the noise.

_Oh, God, his head. It hurts. It **really** hurts._

"Castle to inc-"

_Oh_.

Keith wanted to smile, but it hurt too much.

**_It's Matt_**.

_Pidge had found her brother._

_That was good_.

But Keith hadn't answered yet.

_He should do that._

"-'s - "

Keith breaks off, coughing. His Blade's mask deactivates, and he's glad for that.

_He's not sure he'll be able to talk for much longer._

"Oh, shit," Matt says. "Guys, I think it's from the Blades - but I can't be sure -"

Keith wonders why Matt hasn't recognized him. Then he remembers that he hasn't activated his visual comms screen. 

_Fuck._

* * *

His right arm is worse than useless. It's a mess of blood, tattered fabric, and worse, and Keith has to reach his left arm across the front of his body to turn on the visual comms screen.

It takes three tries, but he finally manages to twist the button on the control panel. 

The screens light up, and the brightness stabs into his skull. 

He tries his best not to pass out.

_He can do that after he lands the shuttle._

But Matt - yeah, it's Matt, for sure, - is still frowning into his comms screen, tapping the side of it with a finger.

"Coran? I can't see anything. Think the incoming signal might need adjusting?"

_More voices over the comms. _

_None of them know it's him._

"Hmm, the codes seem to be in order, but - "

At the sound of Coran's voice, a brief surge of energy flares inside of Keith's chest.

_He can tell Coran. Coran will keep the others safe. It's what he does._

But when Keith tries to talk, his throat seizes up, and all he can do is cough. Blood bubbles at the back of his throat, and he spits it out. He doesn't do it right, and the blood just sort of trickles down his chin and drips onto his chest, staining his Blade's uniform red. 

Well, redd_er_.

Keith almost laughs. 

It doesn't matter.

There's no way he's going to reach a pod in time. Even if he could, he's not sure they could fix something like this.

Internal damage caused by blunt force trauma was one thing. 

Internal damage caused by lightning...that was something else all-together.

* * *

_Lightning, jagged and hot and sharper than swords, stabbing, tearing, shredding._

_It's been eating away at him ever since._

_ Slicing into him, cauterizing as it goes, only delaying the inevitable. _

_ He's a dead man walking. _

* * *

From the way Matt's eyes sudddenly go wide and Coran drops his toolkit, Keith assumes the visual comms screen got up and running.

If he weren't so damn tired, he might hesitate, trying to find the right way to greet them.

As it is, he's on something of a time limit.

"...'ran..." he croaks. "...'ds...knew...they knew..."

Coran's face goes even whiter. 

"-Keith-are yo-"

The former Red Paladin forces himself not to close his eyes. He mutters, half to himself, half to Coran.

"...don'...know...how...but...they did."

Coran glances at a display off to the side of the comms screen, and then he nods. 

"You're clear for landing. Do you need us to come meet you, or-"

Keith shakes his head violently from side to side. Or, he tries to. It ends up being more of an exhausted slump towards one side of the chair.

"...'s...okay..." He manages. "...'m...'lmost..."

He forgets the word he meant to say, decides it hurts too much to try and remember it.

The last thing he sees on the comms screen is Matt launching himself towards a comms unit, snatching it off of the wall and speaking quickly into it.

"Code Red. I repeat, Code Red. Shuttle is coming in for an emergency landing. Prep the med bay."

* * *

Next thing Keith knows, he's landed the shuttle and is wondering if he should try to get to his feet.

Upon landing, the shuttle's front door opens with a hiss, and when he looks up, Keith sees the Red Lion in front of him.

He must have landed the shuttle in her bay without realizing it.

Keith blinks, slowly, confused. 

_...why...is...Red...so...distant...?_

He's too tired to try and figure it out.

Instead, he reaches across his chest to unbuckle the safety harness and it's then that the full pain of his injuries hit him.

He decides it's better to just stay here, where he is, and not do anything stupid, like moving and spilling his few remaining internal organs onto the floor of Red's bay.

But it's okay.

He told Coran about the Druids.

The team will be fine.

He won't, though.

_He was dead from the moment the Druid's blast struck him in the chest._

Keith's sight is fading, but he can still hear. 

Someone shouts his name.

* * *

He's so tired.

He just wants to _rest_.

Metal shrieks nearby, but the sound doesn't bother Keith. Very little does, now.

Voices, lights, all blurred and loud and fading all at once.

Keith groans.

_Stop it. Just leave me be._

Everything's fading away.

* * *

All this effort, and he still won't be able to say goodbye.

_It's almost amusing._

One of the voices is closer than the others. 

Keith isn't sure why.

The voice nearest to him is asking him to stay.

Keith wants to cry.

He can't. It hurts too much.

"...'m...sorry..."

* * *

Shiro can’t find a pulse.


	2. Chapter 2

Later, much to Keith's surprise, he opens his eyes.

Shiro's there. 

So is Allura, and Coran, and Matt, and everyone else from Team Voltron. There are even a few surviving Blades out there, too.

Keith breaths out frost, looks down at his hands. 

He's in a healing pod.

_Okay._

_Guess they **can** heal lightning strikes._

_Good to know._

Lance is gesturing wildly to the control panels on the healing pod, and Pidge has her face pressed right up against the glass, and Hunk is hovering over the two shorter Paladins like a mother hen.

As the frost begins to recede from the glass, Keith wonders if this might be a dream, or a last-minute hallucination, brought on by the desperate need to survive.

But when the pod opens, and the noise and light comes spilling in, he discovers that it's different than all the times before.

Because Keith isn't just surviving anymore.

He's living. 

In every sense of the word.


End file.
